Fun fact: there have been multiple occasions where I forget to write Tessa into the chapter. I don't know how it happens, it just does. :,,)

The only reason Peter slept last night was because of the overwhelming exhaustion he felt. And Tessa.

He was worried Tony was still mad. Because if he's mad, he had all night to think about whether he really wanted Peter or not. Peter could wake up in the morning and he could tell him to leave- find a new place to stay. New people to annoy.

If he slept, he could miss his last hours here.

Tessa stared at him knowingly. She stuck her nose into his hair and pressed herself close to his stomach. Peter rested his face on her fur, resisting the urge to cry. She licks his ear and soon enough, the dog's steady breathing lulls Peter to sleep.

In the morning, he was feeling surprisingly rested. He timidly walks into the kitchen, fidgeting with his hoodie sleeves.

The smell of bacon and eggs in the air, Tessa bounds past him, prepared to beg until she succeeds in convincing Tony to allow a piece to fall to the floor.

He cracks a smile.

"Morning," Tony says, flipping a pancake.

Peter stares at him, trying to read him. Tony glances back and slides a plate over to him.

"Breakfast for your thoughts?"

Maybe he just shouldn't bring it up to him. It's embarrassing.

He shakes his head.

Tony nods and sits down at the table with him. They eat in silence and Peter mostly moves the food around with his fork. Tessa keeps pressing her nose against his leg and staring up at him. He doesn't know if she wants food or to comfort him. Maybe both.

Before Peter can put his plate in the sink when he's finished, Tony sighs and gets up off his seat,
"Ok. C'mon kid."

"Wha- where are we going?"

"We're training. You need to learn some things- strategies to keep yourself safe."

Peter opens his mouth to protest, to say he can take care of himself but Tony cuts him off with a pointed look. He breaks eye contact and looks down at his shoes.

Tessa follows them into the training room and makes herself comfortable on a mat, watching her two favorite people.

As Tony gets the set up ready, Peter sits there on a bench, confused. He stares at the man for a moment.

"Pete?"

"I-I thought you were mad," he blurts.
Great job Parker.

Tony sighs taking a seat next to him, "I'm not- mad at you kid. Im just- this whole thing made me realise, you need training. And-and yelling at you... it isn't gonna do anything. This can be more productive. I want to help you. This way, if you run into something like that again, you know what to do."

Peter stares at him for a moment.

Tony wants to help.

He nudges his shoulder, "C'mon. It's either this or I install Parental Locks into the suit like one of those moms. You want life 360 in that suit? I'll be able to nag you about how fast you're going. Actually, not a bad idea-"

Peter laughs. "Ok, no, I don't want that stuff in my suit."

"Good. Now, help me up."

Tony goes through a lot of what Peter knows in the beginning. Though, he goes into detail on how to block more and fighting strategies. How he should position his fist when he goes to punch too, and Peter was grateful. Tony acting like this and always gently pointing him in the right direction makes Peter's heart soften. Though, once they actually started to act it out, he tried to pay attention but fell into his usual habit of falling into the simple rhythm of his crime-fighting.

Tony's voice fades as if he's underwater as Peter zones out. He subconsciously blocked a few light punches when suddenly-

"Wha-hey," he protests as Tony jabs him in the ribs.

"That was a knife," he deadpans. "You're dead."

Peter stares at the man with a small, confused smile because he's just standing there, hands up in a fighting position with a playful grin on his face.

"I'm not- You cheated."

Tony laughs as he bounces back and forth on each foot, "No cheating in a fight kiddo, the baddies bring whatever they want."

Tony pokes him again. Peter yelps and stumbles back, batting his hands away. His lips twitch as he pulls back a smile. Tessa jumps up with him, wagging her tail excitedly with a small 'woof.'

He stumbles against her weight and laughs.

"Okok- Stop."

"See, that's what happens when you zone out during a fight. You just got stabbed twice because you weren't paying attention. Now, you've got another guy ready to ambush you from behind," he explains, gesturing to the dog dramatically. She barks again.

"You don't want that to happen, you need to be more alert." His face goes serious and he points at Peter. "No more zoning out during fights."

"Tess, down," he protests with a laugh. She gets down but not before reaching up to lick his cheek.

"I wasn't- It comes easy to me though. That's why I go out sometimes. I don't really need to think that much, I just web them up."

"What if they have a gun?"

"I sense it."

"And what if your senses are messed up?" "They're not." "Well kid, we live in a world where androids, aliens and wizards exist. It wouldn't be the craziest thing to ever happen. Anyway, you zone out, they get the advantage. Then,"

Tony makes a move again and Peter jumps out of the way.

"Good! See? You made a successful dodge. But your problem is, you saw that coming." Tony's grinning as he sweeps his leg under Peter and pulls him into a headlock, rubbing his knuckles on the top of  his head.

Great job spider sense.

"Didn't see this one coming though, did you?"

"Hey! Tony," he groaned, (whined) halfheartedly prying himself away, "That's totally cheating."

He's laughing too, a truly lighthearted feeling that he hadn't experienced for a while now, because now Tessa is up again barking at them and circling around happily.

Suddenly though, she stiffens and stares at another part of the room, her mouth pulling up in a snarl.

"Not cheating ki- oh... fuck. "

Someone in the doorway clears their throat awkwardly and a sense of dread rises up Peter's chest when he hears Tony's heart rate skyrocket.

The two of them look up to see the Avengers.

Oh- wait- shit- the Avengers. The rouges.

They're standing there in the corner of the training room because FRIDAY probably told them they were here and they're just staring at the two of them because they're just standing there too, Tony's arm still wrapped gently around Peter's shoulders, limp now; not happy or teasing. Peter's head is still pressed to his chest with his arms compressed in between the two of them, having been in the middle of pushing himself out of Tony's grip.

Mr. Rogers was the one who had made them steer their attention from each other to him. He'd ruined the moment that was lighthearted and not something the two off them had been able to enjoy in a while and Peter had a feeling that they wouldn't in another long time.

Tony lets go of Peter,
"Hell no. Hell fucking no."

Yep, Peter thought, Tony's pissed.

Mr. Wilson looks them up and down with an unamused look. "Is uh- is your dog gonna..?"
Peter follows his gaze to said dog, who is standing in front of them protectively, the short hairs on her back prickled upwards slightly. He's never seen her do this before. Kinda cool.

He pats her back encouragingly and she looks up at him with her toothy dog smile.

He makes eye contact with Mr. Barnes. The man looks tired but better, healthier. He has fresh clothes on, hair cut, and stubble on his chin. He throws a small, warm smile his way. Peter lets his mouth upturn slightly into more of an awkward smile.

Steve speaks suddenly, "Wait- Tony-"

"You're not supposed to be here," he hissed. "You're supposed to be wherever the hell you've been hiding all this time- away from Ross and away from me-"

"Stark, listen to us-"

"Nah-ah this is not-" he cuts himself off as he realized the volume of his voice was rising, taking a slow, deep breath and darting his eyes down to Peter with a softer look.

"Pete, could you go to your room?" Peter doesn't want to. He's worried about his mentor, his voice is shaking slightly with anxiety and Peter can tell he's barely holding himself together.
He goes to protest but Tony's posture stiffens.

"Please."

Peter leaves because he doesn't want to start something else but doesn't go to his room, only making his way around the corner and down the hall so he's close and can hear what's going on.

He's worried. Tony shouldn't be alone with them. He saw the wounds that were littered along his face, the limp and the exhausted look when Tony brought him home the day after the airport fight. Later on, he'd learned that his parents were murdered by the winter soldier when he was brainwashed.

He listens to Tony yelling at the group for what felt like hours. He feels slightly better though that Tessa is still with him, pressed against his leg. She's usually pretty grounding to have around and that's something Tony definitely needed right now.

"Listen, I'm all for keeping you guys under the radar but I never gave anyone permission to step foot into my tower."

"That was you?" "Yes, you suck at keeping yourself hidden. You're welcome," he spat. Peter heard Wanda scoff quietly. "Charming as ever, Stark."

Steve muttered her name in a quiet firmness before speaking.

"They told us we wouldn't be arrested if we stayed here." "I was never told of this. I was never asked permission." "Well, I'm sorry about that Tony we thought you were notified." "I have no obligation to keep you here."

"What, are you gonna kick us out?"

"Clint," Steve snapped.

The air gets tense as Tony stays quiet. Peter honestly thought he was going to tell them to leave, but then, he hears rushed, angry footsteps exiting the door and going downstairs to his lab.
"I'm not dealing with this," Tony muttered, so quiet to where Peter almost didn't hear him.

"Running away from his problems as always," Clint sighed. Steve huffs a frustrated sigh. "Guys, we need to work on becoming a team again. Pissing him off isn't going to do anything." "Language Cap." Peter guessed that was Natasha Romanoff. Her teasing tone quickly turned to a concerned one.
"Should we... go talk to him again?"

"No, I think we should leave him-"

"Your rooms are the same as they were before," FRIDAY's voice says softly. "Mr. Wilson, Mr. Barnes and Ms. Maximoff, I'll guide you to your new rooms.

"Well... I guess we're staying here now."

Peter smiled as he watched Tessa heard them out of the room, growling. Though, her tail still wagged excitedly.

"Right, right, we're going," Sam exclaimed as she nipped by his ankles, the clicking of her teeth making him move out of the way. "Stark's dog is bossy."

As soon as she caught his eye, her expression flipped to an excited smile and she sped over to him. "Good girl," he murmured. "C'mon. Let's go get-"

He shrieked as he met face to face with Black Widow.

Startled, Peter closed his hands slightly towards the button of his web shooters out of habit, but she just glanced down at his hands, then up at him again with a softened expression. "You going to check on Tony?"

"... Y-yeah..."

"Good. Go make sure he's ok." She patted his shoulder and left towards the elevator. Peter didn't miss Steve's chuckle and, "Nat. Don't scare his kid." He could practically hear the grin in her voice too.
"I wasn't."

"Tony," Peter called. He turned the corner to see him hunched over, leaning against his desk.  He was focusing on controlling his breathing before he snapped his head up with an alarmed look, allowing his expression to soften as he saw who had entered his lab.

"Pete, hey..." "Are you- are you ok?"

"Yeah I'm fine kid."

Peter glanced down, "Your hands are shaking."

The man followed his gaze down at his vibrating hands, closing them in a fist to keep them still. He takes a deep inhale through his nose. "It's fine. Just- give me a sec." He sat down on the floor and leaned back in against his desk, shutting his eyes. "Sorry you had to hear all that, Pete."

Peter's eyes widened. "What? I didn't-"

"You have your spidey hearing. And you didn't actually go to your room. I know you," he smirked.

Peter stared at him for a moment, a little guilty now. "Sorry.."

Tony smiled at him humorously and patted the spot next to him.

"Why are you on the floor," Peter asked.

"I dunno, why do you sit on the ceiling all the time?"

"'S comfortable." "Yep."

"They're gonna stay here?" "Yeah kiddo. But- are you ok with it? If you're... uncomfortable or-or scared I can get them-" "I'm not. I was just worried about you... your heart was beating really fast," he murmured, pulling his knees into his chest.

Tony rubbed his thumb along his chest, feeling the slight bump of the scar left behind by the arc reactor through his thin t-shirt. "You shouldn't be worrying about me kiddo, I'm fine. I'm just..." "Yeah," Peter sighed, dropping his head onto his mentor's shoulder. "Sorry that happened..."

"Pete... Even though I reacted like that- I really wasn't... trying to but they're not bad people. Not in the slightest. I don't want you thinking that. We went over this before, right? I know some crap went on between us all that I dragged you in the middle of and things happened that shouldn't have but... we were all way too high and mighty there. We all thought there was only one way to go about things and that-that we had to choose sides but... yeah..."

"I know Tony."

"And I hate that you had to hear me get so angry and listen to my heart go all out of wack like that, there was no reason... to be so- so surprised they were here. It's just that whole fight happened and then they go into hiding never saying a word to me for so long- god, I'm rambling-"

"Your feelings were hurt." Tony grimaced at his words. "I guess so. They shouldn't be."

"You're allowed to feel that way. They-they hurt you. In more ways than one whether or not it was done on purpose. But... it doesn't mean you guys can't fix it."

Tony huffed out a laugh, bumping shoulders with Peter. "Since when are you the wise one."

Peter grinned at the man.

"Im always the wise one."

"That you are kiddo."